Partner Article

Blueprint Awards - winners unveiled

WINNERS of the Blueprint Awards were last night unveiled after months of effort and planning.

The winners for the Business awards were Charbrew, Sole searchers and B-Active.

For the Creativity and design category; Squirrel audio, Piglet Skirts and Gospelware .

The knowledge transfer sector saw Graphene take top prize followed by Royenface and the Social enterprise category awarded Total lifestyle and Frugal philanthropy top places.

Now in its seventh year, the university business planning competition attracts entries from students, staff and alumni from all five of the region’s universities.

This year’s competition was said to be tougher than ever with the panel of judges being hugely impressed by the quality of the business plans emerging from the competition.

Brian Tanner, Dean of Knowledge Transfer at Durham University and co-founder of Blueprint said: “This year’s entries were excellent across the board and stand testament to an enterprise culture shared by all the region’s universities.

“It was difficult to select just one winner in each category. However our panel of judges managed to identify entrants whose business plans and presentations had the edge to name them deserved winners.

“Whilst the prizes and accolade are a huge part of the competition, it is the journey that the competitors take to reach the final that is most important.

“It is this additional help and support that ensures that so many of these business plans turn from a success on paper to a reality, which is so important for the region’s economy.”

Whilst it was a night of celebration for the winners and the finalists, there is some uncertainty over the future of the Blueprint Awards.

Mr Tanner added: “It was difficult not to let this year’s final be overshadowed by the Comprehensive Spending Review and its impact on public sector spending.

Unless we can find a private sector replacement for One NorthEast as the Blueprint Awards major sponsor, we may have to make major modifications to next year’s competition.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .